Healed
by Irrelevancy
Summary: When Esposito saw the blue eyes sharpen and twinkle, he gritted his teeth and shot. Ryan fell to the ground, and Javier was instantly by his side. A sequel of sorts to Recovery. Ryan/Esposito.


**A/N: A sequel, of sorts, to Recovery.**

**Fill for Castle Kink Meme:**

**"Either Ryan or Esposito gets blinded whilst attempting to arrest a perp (temporarily or permanently) and the other helps him recover."**

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Ryan was getting the bandages on his eyes off that day. After every possible examination from complex radiation-free brain scans to a simple Follow The Flashlight, the doctor determined him well enough to take off his bandages. At around 7 or so, Dr. Freeman had said. Do not be exposed to bright lights or blunt force trauma for up to seventy-two hours after that.

Throughout the day, Javier found his gaze unconsciously slipping towards the nearest time-telling device, and finally gave up at around 3:30, when all the paperwork had been filled out and filed away, and they really had nothing better to do.

"Hey, Beckett," he called, standing up cautiously, after conversation between the head detective and Castle had obviously ended. "Um, do you think I can-"

"Yes," Beckett cut in, looking up from whatever she was typing on her computer. "Go right ahead."

"_Please_," Castle threw in, feinting an exasperated expression while fighting a sly grin. "Your lovesick stifles the room, Esposito. Please bring Ryan here before we all suffocate."

"I- No, wait, I- It's not-"

Javier found himself facing twin smirks from the two detectives (because, let's face it, Castle was an important asset to the team no matter how much Kate tries to deny his necessity), and backed away slowly, grabbing his coat and running for it. It wasn't until he was in the elevator that Javier felt the uncomfortable burn on his face, and instinctively slammed his head into one cool, steel-covered walls, just as the doors slide open.

"Just bring Ryan here before you kill yourself?" Montgomery called to Esposito's rapidly retreating back.

"Well, well, well! Look who's here!" Castle got up from his seat when the clock read 6:30, striding over to where Esposito helped Ryan stand, a big grin on his face. "Oh, not that you can, of course..."

"Hey." For dramatic's sake, Ryan pointed an outstretched finger at Castle (Javier had to shift it a few inches right), and smiled beneath the bandages. "These bandages come off at 7. I'll see perfectly fine by then."

"You'll be fine," Beckett called from her table, finishing up the last of her report, and followed Castle's footsteps towards the rest of the team. She smiled gently. "Welcome back, Ryan."

Javier found the matching grins of the rest of the team to be quite contagious, and found himself moving to do the same, until he heard Beckett's next words.

"Esposito's been horribly lonely without you here."

"I have not!" Ryan chuckled at his partner's indignation, and Esposito glared at him, before realizing he wouldn't be able to see it anyways. "You two are just horrible company!"

"Aww, I missed you too, Javi," Ryan cooed, placing a hand on Javier's shoulder. Esposito murmured something, and shrugged it off, before stepping away.

"Coffee," he explained grumpily. "Want anything? Ryan?"

"Nah," the detective replied, stepping towards the side a bit to touch the wall, threading his fingers through the wires. "I want to go through the precinct."

"Right now?" Castle questioned incredulously. "Why not wait until you can see again?"

"Just to experience things differently," Ryan explained, already heading along via blind groping and tentative steps. "Beckett?"

"...Go ahead," the female detective answered after a moment of contemplation. "I'm sure anyone here would help you out. Just... call if you need help, yeah?"

"No problem."

"Um... Help?"

"SHUT UP!" the fugitive yelled, pressing his gun to Ryan's temple, turning so his back pressed against the wire mesh, and faced the entire precinct, half of which had his or her gun trained on him and Ryan. "NOBODY MOVE, OR HE DIES!"

Part of Javier was furious, the other half terrified, and the terrified side grew exponentially when Ryan started struggling. Hasn't he been in enough hostage situations to know that struggling on the hostage's part never ends up well?

"Stop fuckin' moving...!" the fugitive grunted, straining his arms to keep the trained and lithe detective from slipping out of his grip. The weeks spent on a hospital bed had weakened Ryan considerably, however. That much was obvious in the way he was panting afterwards. The fugitive grunted once, digging the barrel of the gun into the side of the detective's head.

Javier would've shot the fugitive right then, had he not caught the hint of satisfaction playing on Ryan's lips.

"Drop the gun, McAdams, or we won't hesitate to shoot!" Esposito warned, lifting his gun to eye level, flicking its safety off for his threat's maximum effect. McAdams, however, just smiled.

"You won't shoot. Not with this guy-" He gave Ryan a little shake, "-right here. No. You're gonna let me go, detective. All of you are, unless you want a hole clean through his head...!"

All guns may be trained on McAdams, but not all eyes were. One pair of eyes, mocha brown, were focused intently on the hostage detective. More precisely, on the falling bandages over Ryan's eyes.

When Esposito saw the blue eyes sharpen and twinkle, he gritted his teeth and shot. Ryan fell to the ground, and Javier was instantly by his side. Javier didn't see half a dozen guns ring out, and the bullets plant themselves at McAdam's feet and hand, nor did he see Beckett's satisfying body slam as she wrestled the gun from the fugitive's grip, pressing him into the wall. Even Castle had a small part - tripping him as McAdams tried to make a break for it. Javier didn't see any of that. Instead, he just saw the bleeding hole in Ryan's leg, and the smoke that seemed to rise from his gun every time he turned to look.

Before he could say anything, though, Ryan beat him to it with a harsh, reprimanding voice, clenched like his fingers around the bullet wound.

"It was not your fault, Javier Esposito, so don't you dare go blaming yourself for it."

Javier never had the chance to reply.

"Esposito! What the hell- You shot Ryan!" Castle was practically hyperventilating, kneeling down behind Ryan to fret over his head.

"Castle!" Beckett snapped, waving for someone to call the paramedics. She herself bent down to help stop the blood flow on Ryan's leg. To her surprise, Esposito's hands joined her, shaky as they were, and she hid a rueful grin. "Don't. It was for the best."

Castle's eyes somehow got wider. "Huh-? For the best? Wha-"

"I told Esposito to shoot me, because McAdams would have no use for a wounded hostage," Ryan ground out from the center of the circle, face ashen with pain, but still finding the strength, somehow, to flash a reassuring smile, directed mainly at Castle. "So no worries, Castle. It was all part of- part of the plan."

"The pla-" Castle cut off mid-shriek to meet Ryan's eyes, and Kevin thought if he got shocked anymore, someone was going to have to pop his eyeballs back in for him. "Hey! You can see!"

"Seven o'clock, right on time," Beckett muttered. No one knew if she was trying to make a joke, but they chuckled feebly anyways. Heavy footsteps sounded across the room, and soon, Ryan was being hoisted up into a stretcher, and Esposito have yet to say anything. Kevin looked on, worried, at his partner, and caught Javier's hand as he was carried past. The paramedics had the good graces to pause for a moment when Esposito grimaced.

"Look at you." Javier swallowed hard, and continued. "You've only been here for so long, and you've already gone blind, got shot in the leg, and so many other things. You must really like pain to still stay my partner."

Tense couldn't describe the silence that Kevin Ryan broke with his smile, and for a second, Javier thought the magic Ryan would rant about ever so often might be real after all.

"...Then call me a masochist, because there's no one else I'd rather take a bullet from than you."

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**A/N: ...Nah, I don't want to put this as a chapter two. :3**

**Review about Ryan's last line, yeah~?**


End file.
